of a tropical rain forest that once stretched from eastern Panama to northwestern Peru. Roque Sevilla, head of MetropolitanTouring , Ecuador's leading tourism company, saved the reserve from loggers more than a dozen years ago. The firm spent

the mansion remained a residence until the early 2000s, when it was bought by a holding company that also owns MetropolitanTouring , a Quito-based tour operator. Though Quito's historical area is among the best-preserved in South America

Canodros, an Ecuador-based tour firm; the 40-passenger Isabela and the 48-passenger La Pinta, both owned by MetropolitanTouring , a South American company with operations in the Galapagos; and the 40-passenger Eclipse and the 16-passenger

floating casino in South Florida waters. But after an extreme makeover, courtesy of its new owners, Ecuador-based MetropolitanTouring -- represented in the U.S. by its Adventure Associates (www.adventure-associates.com) division in Dallas

are precisely what local officials, and the 35 Ecuadorean operators represented at TravelMart, are banking on. MetropolitanTouring , the nation's largest operator, plans to open a 31-room, luxury property in Quito's historical city center

family, which runs Big Five, has been involved with for a decade. Its first major initiative was to partner with MetropolitanTouring in Peru to help finance a recycling facility on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos through Fundacion Galapagos